SJ County named in ambulance lawsuit (2:03 p.m.)

Monday

Nov 19, 2007 at 1:57 PM

STOCKTON — The family of a 47-year-old woman who died in 2006, possibly while waiting a half-hour for an ambulance to arrive, now has added San Joaquin County to its lawsuit against the ambulance company.

The Record

STOCKTON — The family of a 47-year-old woman who died in 2006, possibly while waiting a half-hour for an ambulance to arrive, now has added San Joaquin County to its lawsuit against the ambulance company.The seven children and grandchildren of Katinia Finau filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against American Medical Response earlier this year, but lawyers Friday filed a new complaint, accusing the county of negligence for contracting with AMR to provide emergency medical services.“I want the county to be responsible for its public-service contracts,” said Gilbert Somera, attorney for Finau’s family. He said the county should have been aware of the potential for slow-response times when it awarded the contract to AMR. “This is not a bid for paper,” he said of the emergency services contract.AMR denied all allegations in the original complaint, filed in April, according to court documents.The county’s Emergency Medical Services agency investigated the Oct. 21, 2006 incident, faulting two AMR employees and a California Highway Patrol dispatcher for making mistakes that sent an ambulance to Kaiser Road, 12 miles away from the home on Keyser Drive where Finau had an apparent heart-attack and collapsed.

Read Tuesday’s Record for more on this story by staff writer Zachary K. Johnson.

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